Wednesday, February 17, 2010

52 Weeks to Better Genealogy: Google Maps

About three weeks ago, I spent some time reviewing the city directories on Ancestry.com for Stockton, California. My grandfather, Lee McNeill, ended up in Stockton by 1937 and was there through the early 1940s.

I found him living at the following street addresses:635 E. Main1406 E .Poplar844 Sierra Nevada (don't know whether this was North or South - I picked North)443 N. Aurora825 N. Commerce

What I found most fascinating about this task is that I think that most of the residences are still there, likely without substantial change, assuming that the street numbers haven't changed. The buildings that were photographed by Google appear to be houses or buildings that would be appropriate for the era or earlier. The Main address is currently for a hotel but was likely an old apartment-type building. The Commerce property is by far the best maintained and the surrounding homes look to be as well. The Poplar address and the N. Sierra Nevada address are adjacent to one another. Not sure if the house at N. Sierra Nevada is where he lived or if the Poplar apartment building's current parking lot had a building on it.

Overall, I am very pleased with this feature of Google and will most definitely be using it again.